2 motivating things about Miss in the past week that shows me Miss is 1) relaxing and 2) well mannered.

In the past few months I have been riding Missy bareback in order to get her to relax and accept my leg being on her without getting so worked up. Mere only knew of one instance before me of Missy ever being ridden bareback. The first time I rode her bareback… she was a lil freaked. But now, she’s totally settled and fine with it. In fact, she’s really good about standing there while I hop on. Miss is taller than Cook and requires a little more effort in getting on. So anyway that has been going well. So this past weekend, I decided to ride her in a halter and lead ropes like I do Cook and Patty. I started out first in an enclosed pasture. She did awesome. The next day, I ventured out with Rachel, trail riding on the farm. Besides a spook at a frog by the pond, it was rather un-eventful. We even did a little trotting. She was way awesome.

So the second event happened yesterday. I was riding Miss and she started acting funny. Sort of a jiggy, weird trot. I was like what is wrong with you? I looked back and there was a HUGE horsefly biting her butt! I couldn’t swat at it from the saddle, so I immediately jumped off. As soon as I did, Miss totally let out a big buck and kick out to get it off of her. She bucked a few more times, while we tried to escape it. So it left, and I got back on. Did some more work. AGAIN, the horsefly comes back! It gets close, and I jump off again to try and get it from the ground. Miss again waits until I’m off before she bucks and kicks out. After that, we went ahead and left because we were both sweaty and I didn’t think that Mr HorseFly was gonna leave us alone.

So I was majorly pleased. Miss has good sense not to buck, kick or go insane when her rider is on her.

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Miss is going to an Oldenburg Inspection soon, so we have been in boot camp, working those butt muscles. Lots of hill work and bending exercises. I’m sure she’s tired of it but I want her to do well.